Review: Halo 4 returns the series to its origins

The relatively new developer had a heavy burden to carry after taking over the development of the Halo series a few years ago. Fans have been sceptical of 343 since Halo 4 was announced; after all, Bungie, the Halo franchise’s creator and original developer, has done a competent job with almost all of their Halo titles.

During my interview with 343 Industries’ managing editor, Kevin Grace, he emphasized the amount of pressure 343 Industries has felt over the course of Halo 4’s development. Fan expectations for Halo 4 are astronomical and it almost seems like there is no way for the developer to please everyone.

Well, I think they have.

Halo 4 is a return to the franchise’s simple roots and in many ways, a re-imagining of the 11-year-old Halo: Combat Evolved. The game takes the series’ two main characters, the iconic Master Chief and his artificial intelligence companion, Cortana, and throws them on an unknown planet, fighting a new enemy. Sound familiar? Well it should. This is the basic plot line behind the original Halo.

This time the new enemy that Cortana and the Chief are fighting against are called the Prometheans. Prometheans fit perfectly into the Halo universe and are appropriately terrifying and difficult to take down; especially Promethean Knights.

The fact that Brutes, the one enemy that hasn’t ever really fit into the franchise, aren’t included in Halo 4, is great. Also, interestingly, the Covenant no longer yell English words during battle. Instead, they scream in their own gibberish language. This makes them seem like a formidable enemy and also more terrifying than in past Halo titles.

Halo 4’s story is much more emotional than past games in the series and places a heavy emphasis on the Master Chief and Cortana’s relationship. The game’s voice acting is also superb, partly because actors performed their lines together in a recording studio.

For instance Cortana, voiced by Jen Taylor, comes alive in Halo 4 and as rampancy (her mind essentially deteriorating) takes hold of her, Taylor’s performance is appropriately erratic and emotional. With Halo 4, 343 Industries is also trying to humanize the Master Chief and much of this is accomplished through Steve Downes’ emotional performance. Halo 4’s soundtrack, produced by Neil Davidge and not Marty O’Donnell, is appropriately epic and is arguably the series’ best yet.

The game’s story is delightfully simple and straight forward. It follows Cortana, the Chief and a small cast of supporting characters, as they try to save earth from the Prometheans and the Didact. Fans of the series will notice a number of small touches that harken back to past titles in the series and the Halo web film, Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn.

Much of the game is also spent hunting down forerunner artifacts and taking out waves of enemies in an effort to reach a specific way point. Some players might find this boring, but as a gamer who has been a fan of the series since the beginning, I loved this back-to-basics approach to Halo 4’s campaign.

It’s also expertly paced and avoids desensitizing the player to exciting set pieces and cinematics like the Call of Duty franchise often does. There are portions of the game’s single player campaign that feel desolate and areas of the story that are slow, but 343 is only preparing you for an onslaught of action that’s just waiting around the corner.

There is also an excellent balance in terms of environment and level design variety. The wide open spaces, ripe for vehicular combat, that the Halo series is known for are present, but so are close combat oriented tight corridors .

Graphically, Halo 4 might be one of the most impressive titles on this generation of consoles. Hard core Halo fans will notice that the entire game has a very different visual feel than previous Halo titles. It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what gives Halo 4 this feeling, whether it’s the character models, colouring or environments; everything looks refreshingly different. The heads up display (HUD) has also received a significant overhaul and actually resembles the Master Chief’s helmet now.

Rest assured though, Halo 4 still feels like a Halo video game, mainly due to the ridiculous amount of testing 343 Industries did during the game’s development process. Aiming, jumping, beat downs – everything feels exactly as it should.

Players level up, unlocking weapons and “perks” called support upgrades with spartan points that are earned by gaining levels in multiplayer. This gives the gamer something to continue playing for, but some of the support upgrades and tactical packages, particularly the ability to constantly run and reload faster, have the potential to cause balance issues, ruining simplicity that makes Halo’s multiplayer fun in the first place.

Just like in Halo: Reach, dual-wielding is gone, simplifying significantly the various weapon combinations you have at your disposal. Promethean weapons feel strange at first, but most of them feel like they belong perfectly in the Halo universe. Long-time fans of the series will recognize the return of the series’ mainstay weapons like the plasma pistol, battle rifle and BR, but there area also new weapons like the saw and the promethean scattershot thrown into the mix.

The inclusion of Call of Duty-like rewards called ordinances in Infinity Slayer, the game’s traditional team death match mode, feels natural and doesn’t really shake the Halo multiplayer formula up that much. Initially, I hated Halo 4’s ordance system, but after awhile, it starts to grow on you. Infinity Slayer also scores the game a little differently, offering up points for assists and other accomplishments.

This too, I hated at first. After a while though, it starts to make sense and solves a number of the problems first person shooters often have and actually encourages team work. Are your kills constantly getting stolen by your team mates? Don’t worry, at least you’re still collecting 5 points for every assist. Small touches like this could potentially innovate first person shooters for the better. It will be interesting to see what other shooter franchises pick up on features like this.

The franchise has obviously borrowed features from the Call of Duty series.

Hardcore fans will definitely have issues with the “perks” system, but just like past Halo games, a vanilla Slayer Pro gameplay variant is available. Unfortunately, Halo 4 only features an overall ranking system and doesn’t have a specific rank assigned to individual playlists like in past Halo titles.

This is disappointing because part of what kept me playing Halo 2 and Halo 3 for so long was watching that little number beside my name rise. It sounds silly, but the overall score that awards you with points simply for playing the game, doesn’t have the same effect or give me the same sense of accomplishment that individual performance-based ranked playlists did.

Watch me get pwned online in this video.

Other subtle changes to Halo 4’s multiplayer are equally polarizing. The fact that the game now utilizes loadouts that allow the player to select what weapons and equipment upgrades they start with, lets players use the guns they want right away. But it also takes most of the strategy of weapon control and memorizing item and weapon spawning locations. The few weapons that do appear on the game’s map have way points attached to them that let players locate them instantly.

Also, in Call of Duty fashion, grenades now have arrow indicators that let the player know how close they are to them. This makes Halo’s multiplayer mode more easily accessible to the average player, but also removes some of the skill that was required to be successful in past games.

The inclusion of cooperative story driven spartan ops missions is also welcome. Following Halo 4’s release, 343 intends to continue releasing new missions on a weekly basis, extending the life of the game significantly. Don’t expect these missions to be deep though. For the most part, they involve simple, “kill this,” or “fetch that,” tasks.

When playing offline with three other people, occasionally the game did lag. It’s difficult to fault Halo 4 for this though as it’s one of the most polished video games I’ve ever played.

Halo 4 is an extremely solid first person shooter. It has a level of polish that’s practically unseen in most modern video games. It’s single player campaign harkens back to a time when first person shooters were simple, but it also places a heavy emphasis on narrative and character development. In the multiplayer department, Halo 4 has been stripped down to its core, but new Call of Duty-like features have also been added that make it more accessible. However, these could potentially create balancing issues and annoy hard core fans of the series.

343 Industries has delivered the best Halo title in years; one that’s certainly worthy of the iconic Halo name.